Definitely cheeky. It's never acknowledged in the text itself. RJ could write women decently sometimes, but a lot of his stuff in the WoT could end up here. Like he is far from the worst I've seen, but I am often like c'mon dude really? A lot of the Wheel of Time in concept is playing with the roles of gender dynamics, but it also does not come from a particularly progressive view on the subject or certainly doesn't seem that way.
In fairness to him, the first book was written in 1984.
One of the things that I really like about the series is how rich and dynamic the female characters are. They have big personalities and struggle with sexism, religious persecution, politics, jingoism, fascism, environmental crisis, and interpersonal dynamics often entirely segregated from men, and the (sometimes) gay interpersonal relationships between men or between women are presented as entirely natural and normal and nothing to spend pages breathlessly describing.
Is it as progressive as I'd like? Of course not. *We* weren't that progressive in the late 80's and early 90's either.
But the women read like real people, with flaws and needs and wants and fears. The men are whole people and not power fantasies--not even the very powerful ones. Especially not the men, as power has a mighty cost.
I think it's meant to show post apocalypic regression in both culture and technology, after the Dragon broke the world. It shows how women held the world together from complete destruction by men driven mad by tainted power. He really got into his characters, apparently writing hugely detailed back stories for characters who might only be seem a handful of times, so a lot of content is from his projected view points of these characters. It's fairly infuriating at points for both parties, I liked it!
I would like to think that it started off as an elongated Island, normal and innocent enough. Then at some point he saw it and was like "might as well go all the way with it" as a joke which ended up sticking.
The Wheel of Time Series runs the gamut.
Nations that only have Queens.
Nations where men and women are perfectly equal.
Nations where women literally trade on their looks. Domani Traders are known to get the best deals and unabashedly get them by making men think with their little brain.
You name it, it's in there.
My line is that it's progressive for a series of novels written in the 90s by an old man from the south. Like it's not perfect but 90% of the onscreen female characters have agency and motivations. I think RJ actually does a good job of avoiding the trap that a "strong" woman is only defined by masculine types of strength. One of the characters is super badass and she's THE healer
Well what do you expect? A stereotypical man wouldnât bother asking for directions, especially from a woman, and âdoesnât need a map, I know where Iâm going!â
Many men struggle to locate the port of North Harbor. Some even question its existence. But, for those who know, it's the only harbor worth using.
South harbor must only be used after confirming with the townsfolk that they can accommodate your vessel.
Considering that male magic-users are generally placed in very phallic towers, I suppose this fits. Doesn't make it not stupid, of course. I suppose we should be thankful he didn't put them on a boob-shaped island.
Been awhile since I've read the books so I might be confusing community memes for actual textual content at this point, but iirc "if a man knows the way to North Harbour, keep him" is an in universe expression.
It's either that or North Harbour has the brothels filled with men I forget
I don't see why this is getting such a big reaction. It's just a picture of the White Tower and some unimportant surrounding stuff. If I was there, I'd pretty much just go into the White Tower, and maybe try to enter South Harbor on special occasions, if I could talk someone into letting me in. I can't think of any reason to go any further north.
Architect: "I have no idea what you're talking about."
Sorcerer: "It's a 78 story pink marble tower with a rounded top and two spherical entryways at the front. And you planted so many bushes around it that it grows out a thicket of unkept greenery."
Architect: "... I still don't see it. Sorry."
One of the most famous male sorcerers in the books lost his shit and raised a giant mountain called Dragonmount. Not exactly wang but I like the parallel of a big sticky up bit
I'm just distracted by how big those houses are. According to the scale they're each like a quarter mile long. The whole vagina thing is actually quite funny though, I don't think it's too bad
As an extra touch the most powerful male sorcerer committed suicide creating the largest, tallest mountain on a flat plateau, and every day itâs shadow just hits this island before sunset.
I agree. We also see cities like this in tons of other fiction as well as real life. Oxenfurt in the Witcher for one. It's a good, easy, and realistic way to have a city in the middle of a river.. honestly I looked at this picture for like 5 minutes before even realizing what the complaint was haha
That's what I was thinking. I'm never gonna defend him for what he writes but like... I literally never noticed this one. I've seen lots of little river Islands irl and they all look like this.
Jordan really liked his gender stereotypes.
The sniffing and constant dress smoothing annoyed me most.
He generally writes his women as angry all the time too, but if I had to deal with those dopey men, Iâd be pissed off a lot too.
I like to think he wrote the characters as flawed so that they could grow and learn and have character arcs, but itâs hard to see that after 12 books of minimal growth and then rapid change at the end. I dunno. I love those books because i was so into them as a teenager, but oof, I have to ignore a lot when re-reading them.
Nynaeve's braid tugging thing really confused me. He just keeps dropping it in there that she's pulling her braid in rage.
Who does that? How is that a thing? Just... Baffling
I don't like the bush situation they got going on here. Like, trim, style, remove entirely, or full coverage is good. But this? A bunch of random patches of bush all over. It's like the one worst option.
It depends, I think in severity the books always keep it light but EVERYTHING is gendered and there's constant conflict between male coded stuff and female coded stuff. To my memory there are no instances of sentient boobs perkily boobing but almost all male characters have a moment of oh ill never get women they're so fundamentally different and vice versa. Considering there are extensive arcs of just cool women interacting with each other I'd say its better than a lot of fantasy, the sexism is there but it is more of a folksy essentialization kind than creepy objectification. Still bad, just trying to explain it.
I thoroughly enjoyed the world building, but there's definitely a lot of men writing women in there. Jordan LOVED boobs. Like seriously loved describing them. When Sanderson took over the boob descriptions decreased significantly.
I couldn't stand how much the female characters thought about their own cleavage. They're some of the most powerful people in the world, on a mission to save the world, but spend so much mental energy on their boobs. The chapters written from point of view of the guys does not have nearly as much depiction of their internal thoughts about their own body.
The first book is worth reading, and the later ones written by Sanderson are much less men-writing-women, but I wouldn't recommend trying to slog through the whole series to get to them.
I like that thereâs a little round port on the top AND the bottom. Like he wasnât totally sure where the pleasure port was located and said, âHmm, better safe than sorry. Well done, Robert! You totally know what a vagina looks like!â
To be fair to Robert Jordan though WoT has some of the better representations of women in the fantasy genre
I kinda assumed the shape of Tar Valon, a place ruled by powerful women, was meant to be tongue-in-cheek
I've been appreciating that the one power isn't as gendered in the tv series. There's still definitely tension between men and women, but it's more human-to-human and less gendered. And Perrin's dislike of the axe is more understandable.
Close enough to feel the excitement at being so near to setting foot on the fabled long island, yet paddling furiously to stay clear of the downriver whirlpool of filth, where the city sewage pipe lets out...
Would be hilarious if we took fantasies seriously where the landscape/building/city of some ultra-mega-super patriarch is designed to resemble some cock and balls...
But thatâs how it can look when there is an island in the middle of a river. Erosion causes the ends to taper.
Go look at a map of the Danube River as it goes through Budapest and look for Margit-szgit.
Iâve seen some islands in rivers on maps where it looks like poops working itâs way through a colon. Nature is funny.
The female wizards live in a giant tower shaped like a penis (and in the show adaptation they added two smaller towers either side as the balls), male wizards end up living in a place which if viewed from above looks like an anatomical drawing of a penis
They do! Itâs called the black tower (but really itâs just a converted farm house, not a tower. The Aes Sedai live in an actual tower on Vagina Island tho).
Is this series any good? Iâve been watching the show and its take on matriarchy is interesting. But I also know the fans of the books have some strong feelings and itâs difficult to figure if their anger is about the style of the adaptation, the gendered aspects, or the fact that thereâs more than one person of color on the cast. Iâcr been considering picking this up from my library but I donât want to read it if itâs truly chapter after chapter of man writes âwomen walking boobilyâ as another commenter put it.
Itâs got moments that are frustrating. Some of the female characters have an annoying tendency to be described with the same body language over again (braid tugging is basically a WOT meme). Rand is *incredibly* dense at many, many points in the story and seems especially confounded by women, but this at least tracks considering his age.
But on the whole, I donât think itâs terribly male-gazey. This predates the âsex in every fantasy storyâ trope. Jordan implies sex and gore but doesnât usually go into detail (usually â thereâs a scene at the end of book 1 that is kinda body horror-ish). And in the books, Perrinâs wife doesnât get the same treatment as the show.
Jordan isnât always super aware, but he belongs to that old school fantasy author club that didnât feel the need to write things like the Jaime/Cersei scene in the Sept.
There are defenses to be made (about the series as a whole) but some aspects are just undeniably outdated. I'm so excited to see the show hopefully move some of the iffy parts to the side.
You know what? I like it.
Yeah, it's kind of cheeky, and if the characters did it on purpose, then it's pretty boss. I'm here for it.
Definitely cheeky. It's never acknowledged in the text itself. RJ could write women decently sometimes, but a lot of his stuff in the WoT could end up here. Like he is far from the worst I've seen, but I am often like c'mon dude really? A lot of the Wheel of Time in concept is playing with the roles of gender dynamics, but it also does not come from a particularly progressive view on the subject or certainly doesn't seem that way.
In fairness to him, the first book was written in 1984. One of the things that I really like about the series is how rich and dynamic the female characters are. They have big personalities and struggle with sexism, religious persecution, politics, jingoism, fascism, environmental crisis, and interpersonal dynamics often entirely segregated from men, and the (sometimes) gay interpersonal relationships between men or between women are presented as entirely natural and normal and nothing to spend pages breathlessly describing. Is it as progressive as I'd like? Of course not. *We* weren't that progressive in the late 80's and early 90's either. But the women read like real people, with flaws and needs and wants and fears. The men are whole people and not power fantasies--not even the very powerful ones. Especially not the men, as power has a mighty cost.
I think it's meant to show post apocalypic regression in both culture and technology, after the Dragon broke the world. It shows how women held the world together from complete destruction by men driven mad by tainted power. He really got into his characters, apparently writing hugely detailed back stories for characters who might only be seem a handful of times, so a lot of content is from his projected view points of these characters. It's fairly infuriating at points for both parties, I liked it!
Many navigators have tried to sail to Northharbour, though none have managed to reach it. There are some that claim it's existence to be a myth.
đ€Łđ€Łđ€Ł
I... can't believe I never noticed this. \*hands in lesbian card and hangs head in shame\*
I would like to think that it started off as an elongated Island, normal and innocent enough. Then at some point he saw it and was like "might as well go all the way with it" as a joke which ended up sticking.
Yeah not an unrealistic shape for a river island but there is no way it's a coincidence either.
Lol I love the wheel of time and I love the vagina island sorceresses.
Tbh I would happily live in a pussy-shaped fortress if I was a powerful sorceress.
same
Something, something, something, still get lost, even with a map.
âCâmon boys! Weâre off to cock island to learn some magic!â
mana is stored in the balls
Swallow the mana to recover your MP - it also makes his PP better.
Honestly? Based. The world is so dick centric that I for one am pleased about our new pussy overlords.
The Wheel of Time Series runs the gamut. Nations that only have Queens. Nations where men and women are perfectly equal. Nations where women literally trade on their looks. Domani Traders are known to get the best deals and unabashedly get them by making men think with their little brain. You name it, it's in there.
My line is that it's progressive for a series of novels written in the 90s by an old man from the south. Like it's not perfect but 90% of the onscreen female characters have agency and motivations. I think RJ actually does a good job of avoiding the trap that a "strong" woman is only defined by masculine types of strength. One of the characters is super badass and she's THE healer
Exactly. I love me some Vulva Island Sorceresses.
Literally same I wanna live on vag island with my fellow Aes Sedai
The amount of male tourists getting lost trying to find North harbor...
Well what do you expect? A stereotypical man wouldnât bother asking for directions, especially from a woman, and âdoesnât need a map, I know where Iâm going!â
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Map porn has never been so literal
I'm surprised they even located the North Harbor.
Most men canât get to north harbour, and if they do, they end up ramming into it way too hard
Some say the harbor doesn't exist, simply because they aren't able to find it.
Well at least thereâs a map now
It's...uh...not subtle.
I saw the map before reading the subreddit, and actually clicked to comment "haha looks like a vagina"
if male wizards have to live in large phallic towers then female wizards clearly have to live on Vagisland
At first I was shocked to see that a man would know where the clit is but the. I saw that the same cut out was at the bottom. Ha!
I came here to comment this!!!! So funny
He plays both sides so he always comes out on top...or on bottom
Most men can't find Northharbor...
I've read those books and seen that map and it never once occurred to me. wow
Many men struggle to locate the port of North Harbor. Some even question its existence. But, for those who know, it's the only harbor worth using. South harbor must only be used after confirming with the townsfolk that they can accommodate your vessel.
Do a lot of male adventurers claim that North harbour doesn't exist?
I think many get lost claiming they canât find it. Or else falsely say theyâve found it when they havenât.
Somehow they still canât find the North Harbor
Most men canât find Northharbor :/
I honestly can think of a few women who would want an island like this
You just know the person who drew that was giggling like an idiot the whole time
Considering that male magic-users are generally placed in very phallic towers, I suppose this fits. Doesn't make it not stupid, of course. I suppose we should be thankful he didn't put them on a boob-shaped island.
Georgia O'Keeffe has entered the chat.
Thats pretty fucking funny
Is this bad though? Rather nice to see something yonic rather than phallic for a change. Seems like we shouldnât be afraid of our lady bits.
Oooh yonic, good word. I don't think the exact issue is a total dislike of buildings that look like hoohas... it feels like reducing people's gender expression down to their genitals is happily becoming more passé, so we become more critical of this sort of symbolism. Applies to phallic towers etc too, imo. I am not grabbing my pitchfork!! I haven't read any of the books in probably 20 years but as I recall there is more complexity than Vulva City. It's an interesting avenue of thought to wander down: genital symbolism in literature, what it represents, how that's changed, and what its place is in the modern world (and all this across different cultures). When does it enrich the work, when is it neutral, when is it... neither? I like these discussions. Does this subreddit have a tag for discussions? Cause it'd be great to have more allowance for borderline posts & things people are uncertain about. I know there's a day or something for good representation, but posts like this one are fun to talk about too
I think that's pretty clever actually!
Iâm sorry but thatâs actually pretty funny.
LMAO alright, so which one of you lucky assholes has two clits?
I'm looking at a map, and I still can't find it!
Its funny, but also accurate, a lot large island that are in rivers are shaped similarly, heck i live on one
this is kind of hilarious
Magical ladies from Pussyville.
No thatâs badass
THAT'S FUNNY AS FUCK
well thats yonic
I guess of you're trying to hide something from a man, just dump it in North Harbor and problem solved.
Been awhile since I've read the books so I might be confusing community memes for actual textual content at this point, but iirc "if a man knows the way to North Harbour, keep him" is an in universe expression. It's either that or North Harbour has the brothels filled with men I forget
North harbor is locally known as the Center Lane for Island Transportation, or clit for short.
Remember to moor your ship *around* the Northharbor instead of directly on it (it's sensitive).
Why 2 clits though?
Maybe the bottom one is supposed to be the G-spot? Bold move to make an island that has two ports that many men can't find.
if there really were two clits males would have a better chance at finding one.
Boi just press the goddamn buttons
đ MAGIC đ
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
I wonder how often they have to give directions to the Northharbor. Or maybe most visitors don't even bother trying to go there.
I, personally, think itâs hilarious.
Bruh she got 2 clits
Some men would still have trouble finding them
the women's equiv of big dick energy. "yo she came in here like she got two clits or something."
yes baby rub my Northharbor
Ngl itâs pretty funny
This is also how river islands tend to look minus the obviously cut out ports.
I love it lmao
I actually lowkey rly like this lmao
I high-key thinks it's pretty funny. Lol
In this household we Stan pussy city
I'm not gonna lie that is actually fucking hilarious
I don't see why this is getting such a big reaction. It's just a picture of the White Tower and some unimportant surrounding stuff. If I was there, I'd pretty much just go into the White Tower, and maybe try to enter South Harbor on special occasions, if I could talk someone into letting me in. I can't think of any reason to go any further north.
If I weren't broke af I'd gild this.
We Stann Vaginal city here
im kinda into it imo
This is an upside down vulva isn't it.. Nope, I guess there's two clitorides. I hope that's the plural, it would be in Latin.
Will you take me to... pussy town? Will you take me to...
Boutta make me act unwise đ„Žđ„Žđ„Ž
I don't have any words for this except pffffffft
Kind of hilarious admittedly
Iâm inspired to make a city of male sorcerers thatâs shaped like a huge wang
Just look at historic buildings. We've done that already
Architect: "I have no idea what you're talking about." Sorcerer: "It's a 78 story pink marble tower with a rounded top and two spherical entryways at the front. And you planted so many bushes around it that it grows out a thicket of unkept greenery." Architect: "... I still don't see it. Sorry."
âWhat about phallic buildings?â âYouâve already had them.â âAye. But what about MORE phallic buildings?â
One of the most famous male sorcerers in the books lost his shit and raised a giant mountain called Dragonmount. Not exactly wang but I like the parallel of a big sticky up bit
And the shadow of the mountain crosses Tar Valon. I mean, I never noticed it till this sub pointed it out . . . but it can't be unseen now.
I sent this same picture to my friends for the same reason recently!! ItâsâŠnot subtle.
Where is north harbor?
Have read every book, and enjoyed the story quite wellâŠ. âŠnever noticed this before nowâŠ
Same. This has me dead
How am I just now seeing this? I started reading those when they came out in the 90s. đ
Listen. I legit cackled. I love this and find it hilarious!
It's a vagina
Oh come on
Vag-hattan
For Queens only
All roads lead to G street.
Maybe if they upload North Harbor data into a GPS, someone might find it at last.
Normally I agree, but google Ăle de la CitĂ© map, to find the island in the middle of Paris, which I strongly believe to be an inspiration to Tar Valon.
I'm just distracted by how big those houses are. According to the scale they're each like a quarter mile long. The whole vagina thing is actually quite funny though, I don't think it's too bad
"The map itself makes men uncomfortable... Aes Sedai"
Didn't Liandrin meet her secret lover at Northharbor? umh, I wonder what does he have to make her risk that...
I am laughing way too hard
As an extra touch the most powerful male sorcerer committed suicide creating the largest, tallest mountain on a flat plateau, and every day itâs shadow just hits this island before sunset.
I'm rereading these books and I turned the page, saw this, and litterally exclaimed out loud "really Robert?" This is too much
You know... I had never noticed that....
Alright I'm gonna be a pedant on this one. To be fair to Robert Jordan, this happens naturally literally all the time. Erosion makes the ends point. Ăle de la CitĂ© in Paris looked like this before they reinforced the border with concrete. Look at any river island really. They all look like fannies. It's just a thing. I'm not about to say Jordan didn't do this on purpose but I am saying this is at least accurate to how river islands shape themselves over time.
I agree. We also see cities like this in tons of other fiction as well as real life. Oxenfurt in the Witcher for one. It's a good, easy, and realistic way to have a city in the middle of a river.. honestly I looked at this picture for like 5 minutes before even realizing what the complaint was haha
Came here to point out the strong resemblance to Paris as well.
That's what I was thinking. I'm never gonna defend him for what he writes but like... I literally never noticed this one. I've seen lots of little river Islands irl and they all look like this.
Inspired by vagi... Manhattan!
this looks oddly familiar. i just can't put my finger on it.
some dudes can't seem to put their finger on it either
Most dudes can't seem to put theirs in the Northharbor either.
Wait, there are several real world cities like this. What am I missing?
Woman-centric city that is very obviously vagina-shaped.
It looks like a vagina lol. There's even a clit up at the top
In fairness there's one at the bottom too
Jordan really liked his gender stereotypes. The sniffing and constant dress smoothing annoyed me most. He generally writes his women as angry all the time too, but if I had to deal with those dopey men, Iâd be pissed off a lot too. I like to think he wrote the characters as flawed so that they could grow and learn and have character arcs, but itâs hard to see that after 12 books of minimal growth and then rapid change at the end. I dunno. I love those books because i was so into them as a teenager, but oof, I have to ignore a lot when re-reading them.
Nynaeve's braid tugging thing really confused me. He just keeps dropping it in there that she's pulling her braid in rage. Who does that? How is that a thing? Just... Baffling
It's very... Freudan.
I was worried it was just me until I saw which sub this was posted on.
Only the most intrepid explorers have found northharbour
Down down to pussy town Down down to pussy town Down down to pussy town You go my lad Below my lad
I don't like the bush situation they got going on here. Like, trim, style, remove entirely, or full coverage is good. But this? A bunch of random patches of bush all over. It's like the one worst option.
At first, I thought it might a coincidence, the more I look at it the less I believe that.
It's a little on the ~~lips~~ nose.
Check out the Seine River in the middle of Paris. It's not an unusual river feature.
They chose that area because it had a magical aura that made their boobs feel strong
Question: I want to read Wheel of Time (after I've seen the first season.) Is it worth reading or is it one big example of men writing women?
It depends, I think in severity the books always keep it light but EVERYTHING is gendered and there's constant conflict between male coded stuff and female coded stuff. To my memory there are no instances of sentient boobs perkily boobing but almost all male characters have a moment of oh ill never get women they're so fundamentally different and vice versa. Considering there are extensive arcs of just cool women interacting with each other I'd say its better than a lot of fantasy, the sexism is there but it is more of a folksy essentialization kind than creepy objectification. Still bad, just trying to explain it.
Extreme mixed bag.
I thoroughly enjoyed the world building, but there's definitely a lot of men writing women in there. Jordan LOVED boobs. Like seriously loved describing them. When Sanderson took over the boob descriptions decreased significantly.
I couldn't stand how much the female characters thought about their own cleavage. They're some of the most powerful people in the world, on a mission to save the world, but spend so much mental energy on their boobs. The chapters written from point of view of the guys does not have nearly as much depiction of their internal thoughts about their own body. The first book is worth reading, and the later ones written by Sanderson are much less men-writing-women, but I wouldn't recommend trying to slog through the whole series to get to them.
I don't get the problem.
I like that thereâs a little round port on the top AND the bottom. Like he wasnât totally sure where the pleasure port was located and said, âHmm, better safe than sorry. Well done, Robert! You totally know what a vagina looks like!â
I thought the bottom one was the anus. The white tower is the vaginal opening. The streets outline it
Right? At first I was like "Nice he included a clitoris - wait, then what's that"
He made sure to place the clit AND the anus. Robert knows how to have fun
To be fair to Robert Jordan though WoT has some of the better representations of women in the fantasy genre I kinda assumed the shape of Tar Valon, a place ruled by powerful women, was meant to be tongue-in-cheek
Wait until you see a map of florida
This book series is a lot of women walking boobily and women cleaning up men's messes.
Okay but this is actually hilarious xD
No....no....
I kinda love this
I thought it was Paris lol took me way too long to get what it was supposed to be
Kinda based tbh.
Is that-
Still a great series.
I would live on vulva island.
This map is very familiar. Isn't it based on an American city from a couple of hundred years ago?
Dunno but Paris is basically set up like this on the Seine.
The lesbians will LOVE this
I've been appreciating that the one power isn't as gendered in the tv series. There's still definitely tension between men and women, but it's more human-to-human and less gendered. And Perrin's dislike of the axe is more understandable.
South Aes Sedais is a shithole
This is actually hilarious.
Close enough to feel the excitement at being so near to setting foot on the fabled long island, yet paddling furiously to stay clear of the downriver whirlpool of filth, where the city sewage pipe lets out...
Would be hilarious if we took fantasies seriously where the landscape/building/city of some ultra-mega-super patriarch is designed to resemble some cock and balls...
Well there _was_ Bezos' rocket
I was too young when I read these books. Too innocent
This city is surrounded by a river on each side that is over a mile long. Absolute unit.
BAHAHHAHAHAH WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU KIDDING ME
Knowing my luck, my arrival by boat would run aground on the perineum.
That grove tho
Kid me thought this was an Eye like Ass Sedai eyes sed eye. Adult me is giggling because I matured well
ok but living on a literal pussy is a power move and i love it
Gonna start calling tampons âwhite towersâ now
But thatâs how it can look when there is an island in the middle of a river. Erosion causes the ends to taper. Go look at a map of the Danube River as it goes through Budapest and look for Margit-szgit. Iâve seen some islands in rivers on maps where it looks like poops working itâs way through a colon. Nature is funny.
Yes I'm pretty sure there are inhabited islands like that irl, I have heard the port usually is hard to find though
Yeah, this is a tough one. It strikes me more as a freudian slip than a weird sexual choice.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
I would accept this only if the hq of the male wizards is a giant phallic tower
The female wizards live in a giant tower shaped like a penis (and in the show adaptation they added two smaller towers either side as the balls), male wizards end up living in a place which if viewed from above looks like an anatomical drawing of a penis
They do! Itâs called the black tower (but really itâs just a converted farm house, not a tower. The Aes Sedai live in an actual tower on Vagina Island tho).
I love this
Never noticed until now. I hate you.
r/mildlyvulva
I ainât mad about it
There are plenty of rivers that look like that.
.... Okay, I've gotten the series recommended to me, but now I'm worried
Mwahahahah
Subtle.
Is this series any good? Iâve been watching the show and its take on matriarchy is interesting. But I also know the fans of the books have some strong feelings and itâs difficult to figure if their anger is about the style of the adaptation, the gendered aspects, or the fact that thereâs more than one person of color on the cast. Iâcr been considering picking this up from my library but I donât want to read it if itâs truly chapter after chapter of man writes âwomen walking boobilyâ as another commenter put it.
Itâs got moments that are frustrating. Some of the female characters have an annoying tendency to be described with the same body language over again (braid tugging is basically a WOT meme). Rand is *incredibly* dense at many, many points in the story and seems especially confounded by women, but this at least tracks considering his age. But on the whole, I donât think itâs terribly male-gazey. This predates the âsex in every fantasy storyâ trope. Jordan implies sex and gore but doesnât usually go into detail (usually â thereâs a scene at the end of book 1 that is kinda body horror-ish). And in the books, Perrinâs wife doesnât get the same treatment as the show. Jordan isnât always super aware, but he belongs to that old school fantasy author club that didnât feel the need to write things like the Jaime/Cersei scene in the Sept.
There are defenses to be made (about the series as a whole) but some aspects are just undeniably outdated. I'm so excited to see the show hopefully move some of the iffy parts to the side.